Judge who shelved Apple trial says patent system out of sync
(Reuters) - The U.S. judge who tossed out one of the biggest court cases in Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) smartphone technology battle is questioning whether patents should cover software or most other industries at all.
Context & Ripple Effects
Two weeks after Judge Richard Posner pulled the plug on Apple v. Motorola on the eve of trial, he has gone further in public comments, questioning whether patents should cover software — or most other industries — at all. That moves him from dismissing one case to challenging the premise of the entire smartphone patent docket.
The timing matters because Apple is fighting parallel courtroom battles over Android devices, including its confirmed disputes with Samsung, and the story traveled widely the same day across outlets from Groklaw to VentureBeat, signaling how much attention any judicial skepticism toward software patents draws.
First-order effects
- Apple loses momentum on one of the biggest fronts in its smartphone patent campaign, since the judge who dismissed the Motorola case is now publicly doubting the legal foundation such suits rest on.
- Google's Motorola Mobility walks away without a trial verdict, and every remaining defendant in Apple's Android-related suits gains a prominent judicial voice to cite against enforcement.
Second-order effects
- Defendants like Samsung can argue that injunctions and damages in software cases lack a coherent evidentiary basis, raising Apple's cost of winning anywhere and pressuring courts to demand harder proof of harm before halting product sales.
- Companies holding large software patent portfolios face pressure to justify their licensing demands in court, weakening the leverage that portfolio size alone has provided in negotiations.
Third-order effects
- If more federal judges adopt Posner's position, software patents drift toward unenforceability in practice even without legislative change, shifting competitive advantage from patent stockpiles to execution speed — and eventually forcing Congress or the Supreme Court to settle the question of what software patents are for.
The trend: The judiciary is pushing back on the smartphone patent wars, with individual judges increasingly willing to question whether software deserves patent protection at all.